InterPress News Service (IPS); Tuesday, 15 April 1996.
Lewis Machipisa

Although the country has an HIV infection rate officially acknowledged at 10 percent of the population, Zimbabwe is a society of conservative morals. The formula preferred by the media is that he or she "died after a long illness."

In the case of Nkomo's son, Earnest Thuthani (41), doctors had officially given the cause of death as "respiratory complications."

But last weekend, Nkomo (79) defied convention. In an emotion laden graveside eulogy, he said of his son: "He is not alone. Thousands of young people are dying of this (AIDS) thing but people hide the truth."

But such courage is dismissed by the likes of a local fast-food outlet manager, who asked not to be named: "Why should anybody tell anyone that I died of AIDS? If I want it known I would go public while still alive.

"Besides, I would never go public for my family's sake. It will unnecessarily affect my family and my close friends. It's better they rather not know anything."

Such sentiments hardly surprise Felicity Snowsill, technical advisor of the Women and AIDS support Network (WSAN).

"AIDS is a disease with no name. It's a very, very sensitive area and people do not want to talk about it. As a result there is so much stigma that goes on with it. We have to get rid of the stigma," she declared.

Snowsill finds support from Mike Auret, executive director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP). "People of high stature should disclose so the people of low stature follow suit," he believes.

But while applauding Nkomo's revelation, saying it would help destigmatise the disease in the country, he accepts that the issue has raised ethical questions.

"It's very difficult to say he (Nkomo) did the right thing or not until one gets to know whether the deceased or the wife and children wanted it to be publicised on their death," says David Chimhini, director of ZimRights.

"If not, then Nkomo violated the privacy of the deceased's wife and children. When it comes to AIDS, we have to be very sensitive because it has serious repercussions," he points out.

"What if the wife and children did not know it. How will they take it?," asks Chimhini. "People's privacy must be maintained."

But Auret does not accept that argument. "Nkomo is the head of the family and in his capacity he acted in a right way," he believes.

Despite a long-running AIDS awareness campaign in this southern African nation, the disease is treated as a curse and infected people seen as social outcasts.

"That has to change. AIDS is a disease like any other and anybody can get it," insists Elizabeth Matenga, executive director of the AIDS Counselling Trust (ACT).

"A lot has to be done to have societal attitude towards AIDS sufferers change," she says. "People have to come into the open."

Snowsill however notes: "while we indeed have to destigmatise the disease, we do not have to do it indiscriminately. We first have to look at the effects of such disclosures. While I commend the vice-president's disclosure, I think we need to respect people's privacy. First we have to look at the consequences.

"We have to look at things like how such a disclosure will affect the family and children. For one, I know women get a lot more stigma than men. They will accuse her of having killed their son."

AIDS is a full-blown tragedy in Zimbabwe. There have been more than 150,000 recorded cases since 1984 out of a population of 11 million, and according to Health Minister Timothy Stamps, about 300 people die of the disease each week in Zimbabwe.

Around 27 percent of his health budget is swallowed by AIDS care while economic analysts predict that about 10 percent of the country's work force in the formal sector will be unemployable by next year. (END/IPS/LM/oa/96)

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